Venture and Startup Created 200,000 Youth Jobs... "Strengthening Startup Policies"

Ministry of SMEs and Startups Announces 'Venture and Startup Employment Trends'
Employment Growth Rate at 9.4%, Three Times That of Employment Insurance Subscribers
Kurly Hired Over 1,500 Last Year... Ranked No.1 in Job Creation

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] Last year, the employment growth rate in South Korea's venture and startup sector was 9.4%, which is three times higher than the overall employment insurance subscriber growth rate of 3.1%. Notably, more than 200,000 young people are working in ventures and startups, and among the 10 new jobs created last year, 3 were held by youth.

On the 24th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced the results of an analysis on employment trends in ventures and startups based on employment insurance subscription data from the Korea Employment Information Service.

As of the end of last year, employment at 36,209 ventures and startups totaled 764,912, an increase of 66,015 compared to the previous year. When including companies that did not consent to provide employment information and thus were not included in the survey, the actual employment figure is estimated to be even higher.

In terms of growth rate, the employment increase rate in ventures and startups was 9.4%, about three times higher than the overall employment insurance subscriber growth rate of 3.1% in South Korea.

Especially, companies that received venture investment showed an employment growth rate of approximately 32.5%, more than ten times higher than the overall subscriber growth rate.

Youth employment (aged 15 to 29) in ventures and startups accounted for 26.9% of the total, amounting to 205,625 people.

Last year, youth employment increased by about 18,000 compared to the previous year, representing 27.6% of the total employment growth in ventures and startups. This means that for every 10 new jobs created by ventures and startups, 3 were filled by youth.

Furthermore, while the growth rate of youth employment insurance subscribers nationwide was 2.4%, the youth employment growth rate in ventures and startups was 9.7%.

There were 569 ventures and startups established last year, which hired 3,800 people. Park Yong-soon, Director of Venture Innovation Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, "Despite the COVID-19 crisis, newly established ventures and startups contributed significantly to employment growth," adding, "This suggests the need to strengthen startup policies to increase jobs."

Among the top 10 companies that increased employment the most, 7 were in the information and communication technology (ICT) service and manufacturing sectors, as well as ICT-based distribution and service sectors. Their total employment increase was 3,932, accounting for 6.0% of the overall employment growth.

In particular, Kurly, which operates the fresh food delivery platform Market Kurly, increased employment the most last year (1,533 people), following 2020 (688 people).

As of the end of last year, 7,778 non-face-to-face venture companies employed 201,244 people, accounting for about 26.9% of total employment, which is 1.7 percentage points higher than the previous year.

Fifteen unicorn companies were found to employ 11,719 people as of the end of last year. This is an increase of 3,863 compared to the previous year, with an employment growth rate of 49.2%.

With the 15 unicorn companies hiring an average of 257.5 additional employees each, this exceeds by 140 times the average employment increase of 1.8 employees per company among the 36,209 venture or venture-invested companies.

Director Park said, "With the recent increase in venture investment and funds, and the rise in unicorn companies, ventures and startups are becoming the central axis of our economy," adding, "We will strive to improve and supplement systems to ensure these positive changes can expand."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.